222,240
acres of land and 1048 acres of water. Selkirkshire has
170,793 acres of land and 1796 acres of water, and
is therefore about three-quarters the size of Peebles. Peebles could be
contained in Inverness more than twelve times, and could itself contain
Clackmannan more than six times. It comprehends one eighty-seventh part of
the land and water of Scotland.

Peeblesshire is roughly triangular in form. The longest
side stretches from Borestone in the north of the parish of Linton to the
Great Hill where the Coreburn takes its rise, on the southern boundary
between the parishes of Tweedsmuir and Moffat. A line drawn through Great
Hill and Dollar Law to Thornilee in a north-easterly direction marks the
direction of the southeastern boundary between the two counties. The third
and shortest side of the triangle runs north-west from Thornilee to
Borestone. The Tweed basin with its tributaries fills up this triangular
area, the sides of which converge towards its south-eastern apex.

On the west Peebles marches with Lanark, on the north
with Midlothian, on the south with Dumfries, and on the south-east with
Selkirk.

With the exception of the portion which projects in a
south-westerly direction into Dumfriesshire, the outline of the county of
Selkirk may be described as an ellipse or oval of irregular outline, with
its main axis lying northeast and south-west. The greatest length along
the main axis from Capell Fell to Galashiels is twenty-seven miles. The
greatest breadth from Dear Heights in the north of the Caddon division of
the county to Hangingshaw Hill north of the Ale Water is about the same.

Selkirk marches with Peebles on the north-west, with
Dumfries on the south-west, with Roxburgh along the eastern curve, and
with Midlothian on the north.

Before

1892, when the Boundary
Commission for Scotland was appointed, several detached portions of the
one county lay within the other. The parish of Lyne in Peeblesshire had
previously been joined with that of Megget in Selkirkshire to form one
parish, although separated each from the other by the whole length of
Manor Vale and parish, a distance of fully fourteen miles. The
Commissioners ordered that Megget should form part of the parish of Yarrow
in the county of Selkirk. Similarly the portions of the parishes of
Peebles and Innerleithen, which used to be in the county of Selkirk, are
now in the county of Peebles. A detached portion of Yarrow parish, about
2166 acres, surrounded by the parishes of Peebles, Innerleithen and
Traquair, was united to Traquair parish (which the Yarrow portion had
divided into two) in the county of Peebles. ‘i’he parish of Cutter no
longer exists. From 1801 to 1851 it was returned as wholly in Lanark; from
1851 to 1891 part of it was returned in Peeblesshire. In 1891 this portion
was transferred to the parish of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho.

The Commission had also to deal with parishes partly in
Selkirk and partly in Roxburgh and Midlothian. Roberton parish in the
east, which used to be partly included in Selkirk, is now entirely within
the county of Roxburgh. Portions of the parishes of Ashkirk, Selkirk and
Galashiels, partly in Selkirk and partly in Roxburgh, were transferred to
the county of Selkirk. The large and growing town of Galashiels close to
the borders of Roxburgh and Selkirk had to extend its boundaries
eastwards; and the Commissioners decreed that the portion of Melrose
parish in the county of Selkirk should become part of the parish of
Galashiels and of the county of Selkirk. Still later, in 1908, another
portion of Melrose parish was annexed to the burgh of Galashiels for
drainage purposes, and in 1911 annexed to the parish of Galashiels.

The anomalies were not, however, all removed. The
parish of Stow is situated partly in the county of Edinburgh and partly in
the county of Selkirk. The Selkirkshire portion, known as Caddonfoot, is
of large area with a population almost wholly agricultural; and as there
were reasons against bringing Edinburgh down to the Tweed, as well as
against making Caddonfoot part of Galashiels, this portion of Selkirkshire
was kept within the parish of Stow. In 1898, however, by order of the
Secretary for Scotland, it was formed into the parish of Caddonfoot in the
county of Selkirk together with portions of the parishes of Selkirk,
Galashiels and Yarrow.

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